Registration for the Monroe Public Schools (MPS) incoming class of kindergarten and Young 5s students will be held at the Riverside Early Learning Center, 77 N. Roessler St., on April 25, 26 and 27.

     To make it as convenient as possible, no appointments are necessary.  Parents may choose from three different time periods to register the incoming students.

     The registration schedule is:

Monday, April 25, noon to 7 p.m.

Tuesday, April 26, noon to 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 27, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

     Any child who will be five years old on or before June 15, 2016, is eligible to enter kindergarten.  Any child turning five between June 16 and December 1 is eligible to enroll in the Young 5s program. 

     For registration, parents must bring:

Certified copy of the child’s birth certificate

The child’s hearing and vision results from a doctor or the health department

Immunization record

Proof of residence, such as a utility bill or mortgage/rental document.

Picture ID for the parent or guardian.

     All immunizations should be updated before your children enter kindergarten.  Specifically,  –

--DTP, four or five doses with the last dose given on or after the child’s fourth birthday;

--Polio, three or four doses with the last dose given on or after the child’s fourth birthday;

--MMR, two doses;

--Hepatitis B, three doses;

--Varicella (chicken pox,) two doses.

     The Monroe County Health Department will perform hearing and vision testing from noon to 7 p.m., on Monday and Tuesday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Wednesday.  In addition, immunizations will be offered on the first day of registration.

     Persons with questions can call the Monroe Public Schools Administration Office at 734-265-3000.  Parents coming to sign up their child should plan on about one hour, depending on the number of people registering at that time.

     People with a child already attending a Young 5s class in Monroe Public Schools, do not need to attend registration.

The Learning Bank of Monroe has received two grants totaling $5,500 from the Community Foundation of Monroe County to help provide testing and make it easier for some students to get to the learning facility at E. First and Winchester Streets.

     A $4,500 grant will be used to purchase testing materials.  Each testing module costs $37.50 but most students have to complete four of them, meaning each battery of tests costs $150. 

     Another $1,000 grant will be used to buy gasoline cards for students who may have trouble purchasing gasoline to be able to attend school.  The cards also may be used as incentives.

     “We are very grateful for the support of the Community Foundation,” said Vuncia Council, director, Learning Bank of Monroe.  “The grant means that we can support testing for at least another 30 students.  The gas cards mean that transportation, which is a challenge for so many of our students, now can be less of an issue for them.”

     The Learning Bank, an affiliated learning facility of Monroe Public Schools, is a valuable public resource for people who want to go back to school to earn a GED as a way of preparing for a career or preparing to pursue post-secondary education.  The Learning Bank also is open 12 months out of the year and offers learning times during the day and at night at the nearby Orchard Center High School as a way of making it as easy as possible for its students to attend their classes. 

     This grant is made possible through The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. 

     "We know that education is a way out of poverty offering a hand up not a hand out," said Kathleen Russeau, executive director of the Community Foundation of Monroe County. "Our goal is to improve the quality of life of in our community."

The Arborwood Elementary Campus of the Monroe Public Schools’ facilities has achieved Green School status through the Michigan Green Schools initiative.

     Michigan Green Schools is a non-profit agency dedicated to helping all Michigan schools achieve environmental goals which include protecting the air, land, water and animals of Michigan along with world outreach through good ecological practices and the teaching of educational stewardship of students pre-kindergarten through senior high school.

     “All of us Arborwood Eagles are extremely proud to receive this recognition.  Our students realize that what they do has an impact on the environment and this recognition shows the positive effect they are having,” said Arborwood Dean of Students Megan Angerer who led the effort for the Green School recognition.

     To earn this first recognition for the school, Arborwood’s efforts have been many and sustained. 

     Here is a list of the environmentally friendly activities going on at Arborwood which have produced the Green School honor:

--Adopting a portion of N. Macomb St. for students to help maintain and clean

--Recycling paper, printer cartridges, cell phones, pop cans, cardboard, water bottles and newspapers

--Switching from Styrofoam lunch trays to trays made of recyclable materials

--Using recycled napkins for breakfast and lunch.

--Forming student organizations focusing on recycling and gardening, and forming the Green Club

--Adopting an eagle from the Defenders of Wildlife Program

--Building a butterfly garden with the help of funds from the Arborwood PTO

--Energy-saving efforts, such as making a concerted effort to turn off lights in unoccupied rooms

--Encouraging parents to carpool whenever possible

--Publicizing to the children what activities are being done at school and what efforts they can make to help Michigan’s environment

--Celebrating Earth Day and hosting an Earth Day book swap.

     As part of Arborwood’s dedication to the environment, students will plant 14 trees along Riverview Ave. from Arborwood South to Linwood Ave. in ceremonies with the City of Monroe on Friday, April 29.  Working with the Forestry Unit of the City of Monroe, the students will plant seven Cleveland Select Pear trees and seven Pink Spire Crabapple trees in an alternating pattern to blossom white and pink in the spring. 

Monroe High School senior Morgan Kline earned a Division 1 rating for her violin solo at the recent Michigan School Band and Orchestra State Solo and Ensemble Festival at Chelsea High School. 

In addition she passed a Proficiency II exam in sight reading and scales which is very significant.  In that, students have to earn an 85 percent or higher score to pass.  Besides their solos, students are graded on their ability to play 18 scales that test their range and theory knowledge as well as sight-reading which tests their ability to play a piece they have never seen before.

Other Monroe High School musicians who did well in the state competition were cello soloist Jacob Foulkrod and the cello quartet of Kyle Huisman, Jacob Foulkrod, Maggie Pasko and Eleni Wohl.  Both groups earned Division 2 ratings. 

The next early release day for Monroe Public Schools students will be Wednesday, April 20, but Monroe High School students will go a full day that day.

Excused early that day are all district elementary schools, Monroe Middle School and Orchard Center High School. 

Monroe High School students will attend class all day – 7:23 a.m. to 2:12 p.m. -- on April 20 because they need to receive the required number of instructional hours which was reduced due to state-mandated testing.

The next early release is scheduled for May 18 and once again that day, Monroe High School students will attend all day, but all of the other district schools will only have a half-day of class.

By building, here is the early-release schedule for April 20 and May 18.  

Orchard Center High School – 10:14 a.m.

Monroe Middle School – 11:09 a.m.

Arborwood North – 11:43 a.m.

Arborwood South – 11:48 a.m.

Custer 1 – 12:14 p.m.

Custer 2 – 12:11 p.m.

Manor – 12:01 p.m.

Raisinville – 12:01 p.m.

Waterloo – 11:46 a.m.

The City of Monroe will celebrate Arbor Day with the students at Arborwood Elementary Campus on April 29 and plant 14 trees along Riverview Ave. in the process. 

The celebration of Arbor Day is especially important in the City of Monroe because (Julius) Sterling Morton, teh founder of Arbor Day, lived in Monroe from 1834 to 1854.  To help promote the many beneficial uses of wood, Morton proposed a three planting holiday which is Arbor Day.   

To learn more about Arbor Day, please check out the news release which is attached to this posting.   

More than 200 students at Monroe Middle School earned all-A's in the recently completed third quarter of this school year.  That is roughly one in four students at MMS achieving all-A's.  Congratulations.  We are proud of you.  The list is attached to this posting.

In all, 107 eighth graders earned all A's and 88 seventh graders achieved all A's, too.

They might not be household names in doing commercials like Paul W. Smith and Michael Buffer, but Raisinville Elementary's Cole Mayes and Custer Elementary's Ellie Marchese sure know their "products" and make convincing ad voices for the upcoming kindergarten registration, which is next week at the Riverside Early Learning Center.  Click on the accompanying files to hear their public service announcements. 

Monroe High School student Natalie Lake will advance to the National Conference of the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) competition after earning a bronze medal at the state HOSA competition in Traverse City this past weekend.  Natalie took a bronze medal in Nurse Assisting and is invited to the National Conference in Nashville in June. She is the only student from Monroe County to qualify to compete in the National Conference.  

     Nine projects in Monroe Public Schools’ classrooms have received mini-grants funded by the Education Foundation of Monroe Public Schools.  Together, the grants totaled about $4,000.

     The Foundation’s mini-grant program is the only one of its kind at a Monroe County school district.  A number of the grants deal with technology related projects in the classrooms, helping Monroe Public Schools to be the place where your child succeeds.

     Here are the Monroe Public Schools programs which received mini-grants:

Frances Valdez and Melissa Vanderhorst, Custer Elementary, Musical Composition. This grant purchases 30 xylophones for students so the younger students can learn to play a musical instrument, read notes and write their own music.

Lisa Cole-Flegal, Monroe Middle School, Engineering and Producing Mousetrap Cars.   In this project, students will research design and engineering of today’s vehicles and then use problem-solving skills to design their own vehicles.  Building their own cars, they would race against other students in the MMS hallways.  Ten kits will be purchased.

Lisa Worley, Custer Elementary, Primary Comprehension Toolkit.  Kits and books to be purchased will help younger elementary students to understand what they view, learn and read, and support students in reading in various types of lessons.

Amanda Iacoangeli and Emily Bundon, Waterloo Elementary, Cross-Curricular Inquiry Project.  In this grant, grade-level appropriate text sets will be purchased to engage students as they study world cultures, global problems and teen activism.

Deb Pitcher, Monroe Middle School, Climate Change Solution for Students.  In this program, students will have the opportunity to see how they can make small changes to use less energy.

Suzanne Yorkey, Custer Elementary, Bee-Bots.  In this project, all Custer students – Young 5s through second grade – will learn how to program computers with a Bee Bot, a colorful robot designed to be used by small children.

 Sherry Hunt, Monroe Middle School, Challenger Learning Center.  Students will have a chance to visit the Challenger Learning Center of Lake Erie West, comprised of a futuristic space station providing the experience of working in space and a mission control modeled after the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Melissa Bell, Custer Elementary, Let’s Get Custer Kids Coding…and 3D Printing, Too.   With this mini-grant, four different games to teach students how to program computers will be purchased along with four 3-D pens which students will use to create 3D designs. 

Russell Columbus, Monroe High School, First steps towards implementing the Michigan Science Standards.  This mini-grant purchases three miniature computers that can be customized and configured to collect student-needed data so students can engineer solutions to problems in an inquiry-based environment.  Two inquiry-based lessons will be developed and reviewed for possible adaptation to other courses.